Week of the Empty Bookcase

Sounds a little bit like a Nancy Drew title, doesn't it?  Week of the empty bookcase has involved a lot of shuffling and dust.  

This cake missed making it into the Mother's Day post.  I'm not much of a cake person, but I appreciated the thought.  

I couldn't believe how chill Cairo was in the bath!  I guess I got the temp Just Right for her.  

Love the purrito look.  

Oslo in the laundry basket.

One morning when we were out for our ride/walk/jog, I noticed my shorts were almost the same color as my legs.  I hope the neighbors didn't think I was half naked.  

The kittens were looking all tired and cute, so I took a picture.  

The *click* of the iPad made them all wake up and blink at me.  

I've been working on the school room this week!  One of my projects was to take pictures of some curriculum to sell.  Grumman decided to "help" with that.  Oh Grumman.  

The girls are bored with nothing assigned each morning, so I pulled out a new puzzle from their respite at home box.  Hopefully, I'll be showing a finished picture next week.  

Big haul of library books this week.  

When cleaning the school room, I came across one of the golden eagles we made almost 5 years ago.  Probably time to let that craft go.  

Dubious milestone this week.  The kittens popped out of the tub.  It happens with every litter, but it's always a little sad when it does.  They now have free reign in my room during the day, and are in the playpen at night.  Notice Quito's toy?  One of Grumman's pipe cleaners.  I guess it's not as weird as I thought, because the kittens are fascinated with them, too.  

Speaking of the kittens playing with Grumman's toys, there's Oslo, figuring out the ball track.  

 Don't feel too bad for Grumman, though.  He's discovered the sea monkeys.  I'm surprised they're still alive.  I tend to forget them for a week at a time.  

Eventually, I got pictures of 6 different years/levels of My Father's World curriculum, 

and posted them on the MFW curriculum exchange Facebook group.

I've shipped out a couple boxes so far, and it's looking like I'll have another couple of pieces going out Monday.  

I've got each level bagged up separately, so stuff doesn't get mixed up.  

It's all rather exhausting, right Grumman?  I love it when he wants to hang out with me, but I have had to pull the keyboard out from under him so I can type.  

All of this rearranging has led to our first empty bookcase!  I kind of wish I'd taken some "before" pictures of the school room, because I'm looking forward to how much better things will look when we get to "after."  

Besides trying to sell off some curriculum, we've also identified some books that our family is finished with.  Starting to see gaps on the other bookcases, too.  

Lots of organizing going on.  

Over the years, we've bought a lot of books, and been given a lot of books.  It's time to set some free to be enjoyed by others.  

Step Back in Time with Carole P. Roman

I want to share with you a fun new history resource, brought to you by Carole P. Roman and Awaywegomedia.com.  A couple years ago, I got to review some of the If You Were Me and Lived in... books by Carole P Roman.  These simple, formulaic books are great for introducing elementary kids to various countries.  They include words from local languages, currencies, flags, and other interesting facts.  We now have a whole bunch of them and they have been helpful in teaching my kids about countries in our world today.

Now Carole's come out with a historical series!  There are currently 8 of these fascinating books, and we have 7 of them so far.

If You Were Me and Lived in...Ancient Greece (An Introduction to Civilizations Throughout Time) (Volume 1)

If You Were Me and Lived in...Renaissance Italy (An Introduction to Civilizations Throughout Time) (Volume 2)

If You Were Me and Lived in... Elizabethan England (An Introduction to Civilizations Throughout Time) (Volume 3)

If You Were Me and Lived in...Colonial America (An Introduction to Civilizations Throughout Time) (Volume 4) 

If You Were Me and Lived in...Ancient China: The Han Dynasty (Volume 5)

If You Were Me and Lived in...the Middle Ages (An Introduction to Civilizations Throughout Time) (Volume 6)

If You Were Me and Lived in...the American West (Volume 7)

These books are a longer, meatier look at the history behind some of the countries represented in her other books.  They still talk about what your name might have been, and what toys you might have played with, had you lived in that location and time period, but there's more information than in the other series.  These books range from about 50-100 pages in length.

These made a nice review for some of the time periods Jack has studied, and a gentle introduction to those same times and places for Hannah.

Colonial America actually tied in perfectly with what we were learning in history at the end of last school year.

The books vary in price on Amazon, but sell for around $14.99 each.

Each has a glossary, and sometimes other additional information, located at the back of the book.  There are also some resources listed at Carole's blog.  The worksheets there are not in printable format with an answer key, so we did not use them, but reading over the questions will give you a good idea what's included in the books.

These fact-based, informative books would make a good base for building your own history unit studies for elementary children.  They're also a great addition to any curriculum covering one of the times and places represented.

If you know me, you know that I was most excited about the Ancient China book for my Chinese girls.  I had Hannah do her book report on this one.  She learned about hairstyles in ancient China, and about the Silk Road.

Jack did his book report on the American West book.  He learned that cowboys had rules they had to follow, and that they waved with their hats.

You can connect with Carol on Facebook, Pinterest, Goodreads, and Twitter.  To read what other Crew families have to say about this great new series, including the brand new Viking Europe book that our family doesn't have yet, please click the box below.

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Homeschool Planning: Curriculum Choices

As we wrap of the end of the '13-'14 school year, I wanted to recap what worked well for us this year, and lay out what we're planning to do next year.  Some of the links in this post will be affiliate links.

What we used this year:  
Our base curriculum was My Father's World, year 2, Creation to the Greeks.  This comprehensive "box" curriculum was great for us in all areas but science.  It covered Bible, Literature, Vocabulary, History, Geography, Science, Music, and Art.

We added A Beka Math, which worked fine for Brianna and Jack, but not so well for Eli.  He ended up switching to CTC Math for a review, and likes that better, so we're sticking with that for him next year.  I haven't settled on a math program for Jack yet.  I may just stick with A Beka for him.

We supplemented the lousy science book with several "kit" type science experiences.  EEME was Eli's electronics building subscription, which he totally loved.  Einstein in a Box was a blast with the Lunar Launch kit we reviewed.  The Magic School Bus science kits I picked up from Educents were a little young for Brianna, but we had fun with them.

We also enjoyed some science DVDs.  A while back, a fellow homeschool mama posted about The Magic School Bus series being on super sale, so we got the collection.  My kids ALL enjoy those.  Even some big, nameless teen boys.  Katie asks for them by name.  The Curiosity Quest DVDs were a hit, as well, and I've had requests from the kids for more of those next year.  I'll have to take a look at our curriculum and then a look at their website, and see if anything matches up nicely.

You'll notice there is no language arts listed in the MFW materials.  We did a lot of journal writing and Jack did some Word Building paces before we discovered Spelling You See.  I'm delighted with SYS, and both Eli and Jack will finish out their books (and probably continue on in the series) next year.

About halfway through the year, I picked up Write From Ancient History at Educents.  It's a neat series, if you haven't seen it.  It has narratives, primary source materials, poetry, and cultural stories in chronological order from Ancient History to Modern Day.  We've been adding an assignment from this book about once a week.  I like it well enough that we'll order the next one when we get to the end of this one.

What we're planning to use next year:
For next year, we'll be doing My Father's World, Rome to the Reformation as our spine, covering Bible, Literature, Vocabulary, History, Geography, and Music.  Once we get into castle times, I have a Clickety Clack castle set for us to paint together, and the boys have requested Knights and Dragons to go with it.

Math, Spelling You See, and Write From Ancient History, we will continue on with, as I mentioned above.

We'll be doing Astronomy and the human body for science.  I won a gift certificate to A Journey Through Learning, and I'm planning to use it for enrichments for these subjects.

For art, we will finish up ARTisitic Pursuits and Draw and Write Through History: Greece and Rome.

I need to add some sort of reading program for Jack, but I haven't decided if I want to go back to Scaredy Cat or if I want to try All About Reading.  There's a program I'm very interested in for Eli, too, Rockets, Radar & Robotics, but I'm wondering if it would be too much on top of everything else.  I also want to be sure to leave some room for whatever review items come up next school year.

Our "summer bridge" activities:  
Since this year ends with Greece and next year begins with Rome, I got a few books to use as summer read alouds to make the transition. The Curse of the Acropolis: Athens, Greece and The Mystery at the Roman Colosseum by Carole Marsh will be fun reads. We have a bunch of her books, so the characters are familiar.  Detectives in Togas and Mystery of the Roman Ransom by Henry Winterfield are new to us.

Trying to inspire more outdoor activity, I got a couple pairs of these bucket stilts, and a few other outdoor toys.  We're hoping to spend some time at the community pool this summer, too, if Luke tolerates it.

I have a DVD I plan to pull out on one of the sweltering hot days when no one feels like moving: Drive Thru History: Rome and Greece. It actually came as a freebie with our HSLDA membership.

We're going to be reviewing Greece & Rome and Greek Myths from Moving Beyond the Page this summer, too.  So it's basically a Greek and Roman summer school program this year!

I know the old saying, "You want to make God laugh?  Tell him your plans."  But it feels good to have this all plotted out.  Even if we ultimately vary from the plan a bit, it's a starting point.

To read about what other Crew families are planning to use next year, please visit the

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